PREDICTIONS that the United Kingdom is about to break up are scaremongering.

The political reality on the 300th anniversary of the creation of Great Britain is there's life in the old country yet. Most English, Welsh and Scots are happy to be both British and English, Welsh or Scots.

A poll by BBC's Newsnight found the link is backed by 56 per cent of Scots, 70 per cent of Welsh and 73 per cent of English voters. Rebuilding Hadrian's Wall or Offa's Dyke to Balkanise Britain would be stupid.

Undoubtedly the Nats will continue banging the drum for independence. And devolution, with an Edinburgh parliament and a Cardiff assembly running affairs once the preserve of Westminster, is obviously messy.

But a patchwork country is a stronger country than separate statelets. Alex Salmond, eat your heart out...